Richmond Hill mural artist brings colours to traffic boxes with 'sense of pride'

It is the first public traffic box mural project in Richmond Hill

Yorkregion.com
July 18, 2019
Sheila Wang

Robin Hesse has big plans for the summer: jazzing up two street corners in Richmond Hill.

The local mural artist is currently working on creating murals on two traffic boxes in Richmond Hill, which is the city's first community mural project, launched earlier this summer.

“We need the beauty of murals in our midst,” Hesse said as she wielded a brush at a traffic box at the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Wright Street on July 9.

The artist, a longtime Richmond Hill resident, said she threw herself into the design of the project right after receiving a grant from the Richmond Hill Community and Cultural Grant Program this past winter.

Lively coloured on the top, the traffic box is currently taped all over awaiting further brushwork to be transformed into art.

In Hesse’s vision, the ordinary traffic cabinet will become a vibrant mural on all sides by the end of summer, featuring flowers, blue skies and leaves, with the words “We are one community. And this is our Hill!”

“I thought of the hill, which is my jumping-off point,” the 20-year resident said of her design.

The second traffic box, located at the intersection of Red Maple and Bantry Avenue, will have the same design but different shades of colours to be more consistent with its surroundings, she said.

Hesse who started as a fine artist a long time ago said she discovered a passion for mural art and aspired to bring the community together through her work.

“Fine art and mural art are very different, because fine art is more of an expression of yourself, but mural art is something that belongs to the community.”

The artist modelled her mural project in Richmond Hill after StART Outside the Box project, a Toronto-based program that she has worked with since 2015.

More than 350 boxes have been hand-painted by local artists around Toronto through the project since 2013.

Hesse said she was very excited for the opportunity to create mural arts for the city she lives in and Richmond Hill deserved a public mural project of its own.

In a loose white shirt and paint-stained shorts, Hesse was seen braving the scorching sun in the prenoon of July 9 while hand-painting the traffic box on Wright Street and she was undoubtedly in high spirits.

“This is very exciting! People are so trusting and kind here. It gives the town a sense of pride.”

Having worked on the two murals for two weeks now -- around eight hours every day for three or four days a week -- Hesse said at least 6 or 7 people stopped by every day, expressing their interest in or support for her work.

Some, she said, even asked to be part of the project.

Hesse said the public is welcome to stop by any time. Viewing times have been scheduled for both locations and the artist will be in presence.

The viewing time for the one on Bantry Avenue is set for the same time on Aug. 10, with a rain date of Aug. 24.

Hesse said she will continue to apply for the city’s annual grant which provides project funding to community and cultural organizations and individual artists whose work support a more vibrant city by delivering programs, services, or activities.

Starting next year, other local artists will have an opportunity to join the mural project as well.

A “Call to Entry” will be initiated to invite artists to submit their own design for consideration in the future years.

For more information, please visit the Facebook page of the project -"RichmondHill Trafficboxmural."